House Chairperson, hon members, Azapo has issues with the Labour Relations Amendment Bill. We are on record as having called for a complete ban on labour brokers. We said that labour brokers do not create employment and we still repeat the point. We know the discussions that took place in Nedlac and the final product that now tries to regulate instead of ban labour brokers. We concede that we have lost this round and grudgingly accept the outcome. The Azanian People's Organisation welcomes the fact that employees can no longer be made temporary for an indefinite period. We are worried, though, that the employers can still rotate employees in a two-month period to avoid the three-month period contained in the Bill. The Bill should have prohibited employment of one or more employees in a vacant position for longer than three months. We support the idea that workers doing the same job should have the same benefits regardless of whether they have been employed through labour brokers or were employed directly.
The Azanian People's Organisation is concerned that the Bill does not go as far as imposing the duty to bargain on employers. We hold the view that collective bargaining is the only way to maintain labour peace, and that there should be a duty on the part of both labour and the employer to bargain when there are problems in the workplace. We welcome the extension of organisational rights to unions that are sufficiently representative.
The idea of majoritarianism and the winner-takes-all has always been problematic. We find the timing of this change very suspicious as it comes at a time when the very unions that enforced the principle of majoritarianism and blocked other unions' access to their organisational rights, are themselves becoming minority unions. Is it a coincidence that these Bills come when the workers are rebelling against unions that are in cahoots with employers? Workers of our land are leaving sweetheart unions in their numbers and they are affirming worker control.
We do not understand why people should have problems with balloting, because balloting is democratic and it also ensures worker control. Workers can't receive faxes from head office that they should go on strike. It must be the workers who say yes or no to strikes. With the concerns that we have raised, we acknowledge the positives that are contained in the Bill. Azapo will therefore support the Bill. Thank you.